Happy New Year!
I mean that as a greeting but also as an invitation to really think about the word new. NEW. It’s a fresh start, an exciting beginning as we leave behind all the events of the previous year.
I’ve always like the term New Year’s Evolutions instead of New Year’s Resolutions. Evolution means change, expansion, growth, progression, transformation. So let’s look at our new year from the perspective of beginnings, endings and the in-between.
The Beginning
Beginnings are wonderful events. Remember the new notebooks we got each Sept with fresh clean pages. The beginning of a new year is a like a blank book. We’re internally motivated and inspired and a charge of electricity literally buzzes in our veins. What are we going to write in the book of 2009?
Whatever the goal – losing weight, getting a new job, finding a soulmate – our enthusiasm carries us through the first few days or weeks. But then the energy wanes and the excitement dies. Why does this happen?
We may find the answer in the conflict between our conscious wishes, dreams and goals and our subconscious fears and beliefs. To understand the true meaning of willpower, we have to understand that on occasion the motivations of our other-than-conscious mind will overrule the motivations of the conscious mind. Rather than accept that we are quitters, we must ask ourselves a tough question. What is the deeper motivation for not achieving the goal? It may lie in the fact that it will lead us into an uncomfortable stage of not knowing. In other words, the in-between which is the greatest source of creative energy.
Understanding the In Between
In 1999 I saw the movie Wheel of Time, a film about the sacred Buddhist ceremony of Kalachakra. Some of the pilgrims travel to the ceremony by advancing only one step at a time and then prostrating themselves full length. They stand up; take one more step and fall full length again. They travel the entire distance to their destination in this manner.
To achieve our intentions, it may be necessary for us as individuals to have a slow , mindful and sometimes uncomfortable time. What we gain depends on how deeply we trust the experience.
We’ve all had sudden insights into our own actions or behaviour. At that “aha” moment we cross the bridge into understanding. We achieve this by first accepting the experience, by becoming conscious of the feelings of the experience and allowing inspiration to guide our steps. That is the real power of our will.
Understanding Endings
Many people are talking these days about being in a new paradigm. What does it really mean? Could it be the process of each unique individual bringing to the surface the hidden creative forces that inspire actions? Mainstream culture has not yet accepted that it is okay to just BE. But what if the in-between is exactly the state we must be in to live a purposeful, creative and joyful life?
Some endings happen. 2008 ended and so will 2009. But what may not end is the way we use the experiences of the past to continually propel us forward into something more. Perhaps if we reflect on our experiences, we will discover the achievement of the goal was never the real goal. It was the act of creation. And if indeed there is an ending, we will find self knowledge and the seed of an incredibly exciting new beginning.
“And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive at where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T.S. Eliot
